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New Trade Law Requires Infants To Have Social Security Numbers

December 21, 1994|By National Newspaper Syndicate.

The new General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade law recently approved by Congress will force parents to obtain Social Security numbers for all their children, regardless of how young. Parents will need to list the IDs on their income tax returns in order to claim dependent exemptions.

Previous law required Social Security IDs only for children who were 1 year of age or older. The new law extends the requirement to children below age 1.

But parents of newborns needn't rush to obtain Social Security numbers. For one thing, the new requirement won't take effect until 1996 when parents fill out their income tax returns for the 1995 tax year. At that time, the requirement will apply only to children who were born before Nov. 1, 1995. This cutoff will prevent parents who have a child late in the year from having to worry about obtaining a Social Security number in time to file their return while trying to tend to all the other burdens of caring for an infant.